Hugs
by xox.MyWorldIsDifferent.xox
Summary: REPOSTED! "Somebody wasn't hugged much as a child."


_AN: So I had this on a while ago but I wasn't that happy with it, so I took it down and re-did it, resulting in this! I am definitely much happier with this, so I really hope you like it too…_

_Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own NCIS, CBS does. I only own our two adorable DiNozzo twins :)_

The cries were the first thing that alerted him to his daughter's discomfort.

Tony liked to believe that no matter where he was, he would always know when she was upset or hurting. Even now, though he was standing only rooms away from her, he felt immense pride wash over himself when he heard her wail.

Which sounded completely cruel when he thought about it.

He made his way down the hall and pushed her door open with his foot, scanning the room until his eyes landed on his two year old, who stood in her crib with tears streaming down her face.

"Hey there Delilah" he murmured softly as he came to a stop in front of her. "What's it like in New York City?"

Apparently unamused by her father's joking, Sophie DiNozzo jutted her lower lip out and banged her hands against the side of her crib.

"Daddy!" she screamed in frustration, and Tony chuckled as he lowered the side and lifted her out. "Well now, Miss Sophie, did you have a good sleep?" he asked, kissing her cheek.

She mumbled something against his neck before trying to wriggle out of her father's arms, forcing Tony to quickly place her feet on the floor. He watched her a moment and then made his way over to the other side of the room, checking on his other daughter, who was still sound asleep. He gently pulled her blanket over her feet, indicating for Sophie to be quiet when he left the room.

He walked back to the kitchen to finish preparing the lunch his wife had politely asked for, but was interrupted only moments later by a very loud bang sounding from the girls' room. Forgetting about cutting the cheese extra thinly, Tony called out, "I've got it," and took off at a jog to see what had happened.

Sophie was on her hands and knees, mouth open and tears streaming down her face, no noise managing to make its self heard.

Upon seeing her dad enter the room, she rocked back onto her bottom, held her arms up in the air, and let one sob sound throughout the relatively quiet room.

Tony looked at his daughter and then at the scattered books at the base of the bookcase, put two and two together, and knelt down to Sophie's level.

"What have you done?" he asked softly, running his hand over her soft brown hair.

She continued to stare at him intently, arms above her head, tears running in streams down her red cheeks.

"Sophie, you have to tell me what's wrong," Tony told her. "What did you do, hey?"

Behind him he heard a rustle and he turned his head to see Paris roll onto her stomach from inside her crib. For a moment he thought she had woken and held his breath as he waited to see if she moved again, but her quiet snores assured him that she was still unconscious.

Tony sighed and met Sophie's eyes once more, running a hand through his hair when he realised her position hadn't changed.

"Alright, I think this is a job for mommy," Tony said, hoisting Sophie onto his hip and walking out of her room in search of his wife.

"Ziva?" he called out as he made his way down the hallway. He found her in the lounge room, curled up on the couch by the window with the new book she had been given a week ago. She looked up at the sound of her daughter crying and forgot her book for the moment.

"Oh, tataleh" she murmured as Tony passed over the little girl.

"She won't stop," Tony informed her as he watched Ziva rub circles on Sophie's back. "I think she pulled all the books out and gave herself a fright or something... maybe hit her head? But she just sat there, not quite crying."

"She wanted one of us" Ziva said softly.

"Obviously not me."

Ziva peered over Sophie's head and narrowed her eyes slightly, giving Tony the look he had gotten used to seeing throughout her pregnancy. The _are-you-seriously-making-this-about-yourself-when-something-else-is-so-much-more-important _look. The one that always ended with her upset and him having to buy an extra container of Triple Rainbow Swirl ice-cream.

"I think she has finally mastered the art of silent crying!" he joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"She wanted a hug, Tony," Ziva said coldly, her hand never stopping rubbing calming circles.

"She's hooked" he commented, sitting beside her. "They both are."

"There is nothing wrong with giving your child a hug" she retorted. "You should know that from spending time around Abby. Hugs are... comforting."

"Abby isn't one of my daughters, though. And believe it or not, I think Sophie and Paris have been given more hugs in their two years than Abby has in her whole life," he said.

"Fine, Tony, we will stop with the hugs. We will stop with all forms of physical contact if it makes _you _happy!" she hissed, standing to leave.

"Hey, Ziva, wait," he called after her, reaching out to grab her, to stop her from leaving. "I didn't mean-"

"I just..." she interrupted, turning to face him angrily. She lowered her gaze and her voice softened noticeably as she blinked back tears. "I want my children... to feel as though they are... loved. As though they have somebody to run to. Somebody... constant in their lives. Is that too much to ask?"

There was a pause as she let her words sink in, and then she was gone, leaving Tony standing by the door with unwanted memories flooding his mind.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

**Six Years Ago**

_It was early in the morning when Tony arrived in the bullpen, offering cheerful greetings to everybody he passed on his way. He peered over the divider to Ziva's desk and his grin grew as he saw her asleep, hair spread out over numerous sheets of paperwork and muffled snores sounding from her head, which was buried between her arm and her jacket. _

_He swung his backpack over his desk and turned to greet McGee, frowning now as he noticed that the younger agent was also asleep at his desk. A quick check to his boss's desk proved to him that the team had pulled an all nighter without him, and he felt his good mood dampen somewhat at the thought._

_Sighing, he made his way back over to Ziva's desk, where he knelt in front of her and reached out to prod her cheek with the tip of his smallest finger, knowing that if he was to lose one of them he would want it to be his pinky. He managed to do it three times successfully before her eyes began to flutter open and he retreated to his desk._

"_Morning, Zee-VAH," he called, starting up his computer and pretending nothing had happened._

_For a moment she looked around as though trying to decipher where she was, and then she met his gaze and he realised her eyes were strangely wet for just having woken up._

_She ran her hands through her unruly hair and stood, stretching her back. "Good morning, Tony."_

"_You alright?' he asked, slightly concerned._

"_Fine," she snapped, loud enough that McGee jerked awake with a start. He too rubbed his eyes and then stood, grabbing the remote to the plasma and walking to the middle of the bullpen._

"_Nice of you to join us Tony" he said dryly before bringing up various papers on the screen. _

"_You see, Ziva and I spent the night searching for and then ringing every single person who had come into contact with our victim over the last six months per Gibb's instruction. And we found that this woman..." McGee clicked the remote and a picture of a middle-aged blonde lady popped onto the screen. "Rang him twice the first month, and then eight times the second, and then fourteen the third, always six times more than the last."_

"_She also sent him a dozen encrypted messages via both email and IM, plus riddles in the mail," Ziva contributed, taking up her place beside Tony's desk so that the Senior Field Agent could stand between them whilst he observed._

"_Crazy stalker? McGemCity would know all about one of those" Tony joked, making Ziva roll her eyes. He grinned and turned to ruffle her hair, wincing as she punched him in the stomach._

"_Jeez, Ziva, I was just ruffling your hair," he defended._

"_Don't!" she snapped back, eyes blazing._

"_What's it gonna do, make it messier?"_

_She punched him again, harder this time, her knuckles turning white from forcing her hands into tight fists. She began to speak again, something about the woman placing considerable amounts of money in their victim's bank account, but despite this she didn't miss what Tony muttered once her attention was elsewhere._

"_Somebody wasn't hugged much as a child."_

_Suddenly the air was leaving his lungs and he was on his back, with her straddling his chest and holding his arm above his head in a very painful position. He was aware of McGee staring at them but he didn't avert his eyes from hers, taking in her stoic features and empty brown orbs._

"_Take it back!" she hissed, lips pressing into a thin line when she finished speaking._

"_I'm sorry" he muttered, forgetting about Rule 6 for the moment._

_He wasn't sure if she believed him, but she released her grip on his arm and stood again, regaining control of her emotions in less than five seconds. _

"_Her name is currently Belinda Miller, but McGee did a bit of research and found out that this is just an alias. Her real name is Christine Lay. Christine had one child, Amy, who is currently on her way back from a trip to Ireland. When her flight lands, it would be convenient to simply pick her up from..." _

_Tony stopped listening to what she was saying, instead focusing on the back of her head and the words he had said to cause such a reaction from her. He knew she was tired, he knew she was grumpy beyond belief, but he never knew that she would just snap at what was supposed to be a harmless comment. _

_Gibbs joined the three, slapping the back of his head in the process. He didn't bother with hellos as he ordered Ziva home after noticing how exhausted she was, and as she made her way to her desk to collect her things Gibbs pulled him away from McGee slightly and whacked his head once more._

"_Focus on what's important, DiNozzo. Fairytale childhoods didn't happen to everyone, and you should know that. Fix it before it screws up your work."_

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Tony remembered their conversation in the elevator, the tears she had cried when she finally broke and the punches she had thrown his way when he had first flicked the emergency switch. He remembered the way the name Eli David was spat from her mouth even though she swore she was trying to rebuild their relationship, and they way she had thrown herself into his arms, mumbling questions to her dead mother that she thought he couldn't hear.

He quickly followed the way she had walked moments ago and came to a stop in the doorway of the girls' room, watching her rock Sophie back and forth in the chair Gibbs had made.

"Hey" he said softly, and her eyes met his momentarily, void of emotions. He frowned. "Hey, Zi. Don't block me out."

She sighed audibly and placed Sophie on the ground, indicating for Tony to enter the room. He waited for her to make room for him on the rocking chair, but when she didn't he knelt on the ground beside her, taking the hand closest to his and frowning even more when hers went slack in his own.

"Alright, so I already know that no amount of Triple Rainbow Swirl will make up for this," he said softly, expecting her to at least crack a smile. He continued after a while of silence and expectations, knowing that he needed to fix things like that time six years ago.

"We both had crap dads. And maybe our mums were a bit like that too. Maybe we didn't have the happy childhood you saw on TV, but we have the chance to give that to our kids, and I am not about to stuff that up. Hugs are hugs, Ziva, and I was so wrong to even say what I did. Once upon a time, we- you- had to grow up fast. And maybe people needed to pay more attention to the little girl sitting in the corner, waiting for her daddy to come home."

He noticed her chin quiver slightly and felt her squeeze his hand, her thumb brushing over the back of his gently.

"I didn't have a TV" she murmured, her voice filled with unshed tears.

"What?" Tony asked incredulously.

A laugh bubbled in her chest and she smiled at him. "I did not have a television for the first nine years of my life."

"Oh," he laughed too, enjoying the sound of his combined with hers, and then became more serious again. "But that little girl, Ziva, she never got noticed, never got that hug from her dad. And I understand that you don't want our girls to experience that. I respect that."

"Thank you for understanding, Tony" Ziva said, standing and pulling him to his feet. She leant forward, pressing her face against his chest and inhaling deeply. "Thank you."

He hugged her back tightly, kissing the top of her head. "Its okay, Ziva" he whispered. He leant forward to capture her lips with his own, but they were interrupted all too soon by the cries of one of their daughters. Smirking against his lips, Ziva pulled away and crossed the room to let Paris out of her crib.

She held her daughter tightly for a moment, and Tony watched as Paris wrapped her arms around her mother's neck.

"Ne'er let go, momma" she murmured into Ziva's neck, and Ziva nodded as a small tear trickled down her cheek.

"I promise."

Sophie decided to ruin the moment, tugging on Ziva's leg and demanding to be lifted also. Tony ran across to her and swooped her into the air, burying his nose in her hair after her giggles died down.

"Love ya daddy" she told him, and Paris turned to look at him also.

"Loves ya!" she contributed.

Ziva laughed and moved to Tony's side, resting her head against his shoulder and letting him wrap a strong arm around her and their two daughters.

"I love you Tony."

"I love you too," he replied.

Maybe they didn't have good childhoods. Maybe they weren't hugged enough, or maybe they just didn't accept them when they were offered. Maybe the trust issues they both had now were a result of a lack of a constant in their life, just one person who would be there each morning and evening to offer compassion.

At least they could give their children that constant, that person that would never leave them.

And maybe, just maybe, it would make up for the disappointment of a little girl who lived a lifetime ago and half a world away.

**The End.**


End file.
